The Fellowship of the Beachhead – or How I Got to be in Charge
For a Change
By Lynne
Bronstein
For the last 30 years or so,
women have been learning to assert themselves and how to delegate authority
without aping the worst traits of authoritative males. Does assertiveness
training work? Well, it still helps if people are able to abandon their double
standards. Regardless of what one thinks of Hillary Clinton’s politics,
one has to agree that she comes in for some bashing for her take-charge
attitude.
As for poor little old me, I’ve been trying
for years to overcome a plethora of fears in order to get what I need.
I’ve always been more of a loner than either a follower or a leader. But I
have to thank the Venice Beachhead for helping me to see that I did have it in
me to be a leader.
The Beachhead has
always been run as a Collective and nobody is the editor. Editorial decisions
are made by the entire group. Of course, since somebody has to lead meetings and
organize production, every month one person volunteers to be the Coordinator,
which would otherwise be called the Managing Editor. Back when I was on the
Collective-late 1970s and early 1980s – each month’s meeting would
begin with the last month’s Coordinator asking who wanted to take over for
the new month-and somebody would
volunteer.
For the first few months, I
didn’t volunteer because I was new and wanted to learn more about the
functioning of the paper. Then, I didn’t volunteer because it seemed as
though all the others were so accustomed to speaking up that I wasn’t able
to jump in fast enough.
And then it got
to the point where many Collective members were growing weary of the task of
coordinating. The question would come up and there would be a moment of silence
and then someone would sigh and say “okay, I’ll do it, just this
once more.”
Finally came a month
when the question was posed. I had been thinking about how I had a golden
opportunity to finally “jump in” and say that I would coordinate.
There was the silence. Nobody spoke. So I nudged myself and said
“I’ll do it.”
Remember
that moment in The Fellowship of the Ring when the various elves, dwarves, and
humans are discussing who should travel to Mordor to destroy the ring, and
everyone has excuses, and finally, little Frodo speaks up and says he’ll
take the Ring to Mordor? And the others are abashed and they pledge to help
Frodo on his journey?
I felt tears in my
eyes when I saw that part of the movie because it reminded me of the time I
first volunteered to be Coordinator of the Venice
Beachhead.
Nobody knelt at my feet but
nobody said “No, Lynne, you aren’t assertive enough to manage
things.” It wasn’t Beachhead policy to second-guess somebody
else’s abilities. I was entitled to have my turn as all the others
did.
That being said, I soon realized
that my first task would be to establish a sense of order, for my co-workers
were gossiping and I needed to quiet them down. So, when my gestures and murmurs
of “Quiet” were not heeded, I took out my police whistle that I
carried for self-defense and I blew the whistle! Everyone hushed up at the
sound.
Then we laughed and someone said
“I like the way Lynne takes
charge!”
I coordinated that issue
and at least two other issues. There were no fights or ego struggles. I
didn’t have to stretch myself into a dictator to get my instructions
across.
I don’t know if the whole
world could be run by the collective process but I do know that it was and is a
system that allows the formerly powerless to taste what power is like-without
abusing power.
And over the years, the
Venice Beachhead has been the home of a large number of assertive, smart,
creative women who contribute to the paper in every possible
way.
I’m glad I got to be one of
them.
Posted: Sat - March 1, 2008 at 04:24 PM
